Is this a Westone Pantera X390? Level 42's Boon Gould in 1986...

I hope you'll indulge me here...

One of the main reasons I bought my Westone Pantera back in '86 is because being a huge fan of Level 42 as a kid (still am) I swear I saw the late Boon Gould :-( using a startlingly similar guitar on the Live At Wembley show in '86. With the absence of YouTube it was very difficult to check/freeze frame back then.

On looking back I think it looks so much like one but seems to have two humbuckers and a middle single coil?? Did any versions have this setup?

Is it a custom Caspian Blue? The controls seem to match a Pantera, the shape is like an X390, it has a Kahler by the looks of it, but there's no Pantera logo over the front pickup but maybe its an Alvarez or something? I'm certainly no expert so I thought I'd see if anybody here could help me. Very nerdy I know, but it would settle a long-standing query :-)

Apart from Trevor Rabin, and Leslie West I don't know any other high profile guitarist who ever 'professionally picked up a Pantera' (try saying that after half a bottle of single malt...)

Sure looks like a Pantera but it's likely been modded or possibly custom made.

Almost all of the production versions were 2 pickups, except for the Pro X300 which was an HSS configuration LINK

As for the logo, the pictures are not clear enough to tell if there is one on the body and the stage lighting doesn't help either, but I do see a fuzzy red smudge on the head stock (pics 3 and 9) which look like the Westone 'birdie' logo.

The song begins around 3.20 so if you want to have a look yourself... :-)

Yeah, that's what's confusing me Barry. I wonder if Westone approached him with a prototype?

Having watched the video I'm no further ahead! Great band performance though.

Just for a fleeting moment I thought that it might be a Genesis, but there's no 'step' on the body, no Caspian blue, plus they were not even available until '87, a year after this concert.

Strongly looking like a custom build. Hmmm...

Not thinking it might be a prototype Westone gave him? I've contacted the drummer and the bassist in my desperation, not holding my breath for a reply haha!

I don't think that something like this would be a prototype.

A prototype usually involves something dramatically different, a departure from the normal production line or something entirely new, which this isn't. It's clearly a mod, at least from what we can see.

It may have been a pilot for a Signature series of some sort. Since it didn't materialize in the catalogues I'm inclined to think it was a one-off.

You may well be right, It's a Pantera X390 by all accounts no mistake. The controls are in exactly the right place, the Kahler term and locking nuts. Having seen it from the back it's the bayonet mount and the shape is def not a Rabin shape (which I believe is more symmetrical than the original Pantera). It's only the middle pickup that's confusing me. On the other hand, it could easily be a Caspian Blue with an added aftermarket middle pickup? There's still only two tone, one volume and a three-way switch.

So what's Trevor Rabin playing here? Three pickups, dot inlays, Kahler bridge? Is that a Rabin signature from later or an X390 with an added middle pickup? Looks like the one Boon Gould is playing in a different colour? 

The Signature Rabin Pantera III was HSS.

Don't know enough about the signature models but this is likely a custom version for him since he was a big booster.

Perhaps there was more than one?

Yeah, I'm sure you're right Barry. 

What is quite amusing is that I notice that in the Trevor Rabin master sessions video that his Caspian Blue Pantera has been 'defaced' with black (or very mismatched blue) paint over the Pantera body logo and the Alvarez logo has been applied over the Westone logo. He says that it's the first Pantera given to him by Tom Presley but he's obviously wanted to remove all trace of the Westone Pantera associations :-)

I'm sure you probably know all this already but it's fun for me to see!

The X390 has 24 frets so I could tell once I saw the 2 dot inlays at the final fret.

Interestingly I just saw another Westone / Electra oddity with Trevor Rabin on the cover of September 1987 Guitar World magazine he's holding a 12 string Westone Spectrum.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Guitar-World-Magazine-1987-September-Yes-Chris-Squire-Trevor-Rabin-NOS/402270143092?hash=item5da92b4274:g:k1cAAOSwDZpexyuv

warmachine wrote:Interestingly I just saw another Westone / Electra oddity with Trevor Rabin on the cover of September 1987 Guitar World magazine he's holding a 12 string Westone Spectrum.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Guitar-World-Magazine-1987-September-Yes-Chris-Squire-Trevor-Rabin-NOS/402270143092?hash=item5da92b4274:g:k1cAAOSwDZpexyuv

...and isn't it just fabulous?!? A member of these boards built a Pantera X300 into a 12, and then moved onto building a Spectrum 12. He lost touch and we've never seen the finished article...

Check out Sarcasters' posts...

Anyway, I imagine TR still has it; it'd be nice to see it here!!